A library to drive ESC/P printers
Project description
escp
A Python library to drive ESC/P printers.
Motivation
There is no driver available for your printer, or there is one but it is slow and the print quality is mediocre.
Missing driver can be worked around by using a generic 9-pin or 24-pin generic driver. To get the highest quality, this library focuses on text mode printing, leveraging device fonts (built-in fonts), as opposed to modern drivers that rely on graphics.
Features
ESC/P, ESC/P2, ESC/POS
| Variant | Supported |
|---|---|
| ESC/P | ✓ |
| ESC/P2 | ✗ |
| ESC/POS | ✗ |
- ESC/P (Epson Standard Code for Printers), sometimes called Escape/P, is a printer control language developed by Epson to control computer printers. It was mainly used in dot matrix printers and some inkjet printers, and is still widely used in many receipt thermal printers. Supported. Primary target.
- ESC/P2 is a more recent variant of ESC/P by Epson. Backward compatible with ESC/P. Not supported. Switch to ESC/P but some features won't be available.
- ESC/POS is a variant for controlling receipt printers as commonly used at the point of sale (POS). Often thermal printers. Not supported and out of scope. Use the comprehensive python-escpos library instead.
References
Printers
Tested on a 9-pin reference printer: Epson LX-300+II
| Type | Status |
|---|---|
| 9-pin | Work in progress – Text mode |
| 24/48-pin | Work in progress – Text mode – Not tested |
Connectivity
| Connector | Status |
|---|---|
| USB | ✓ |
| Serial | ✗ |
| Parallel | ✗ |
| File | ✓ |
Although serial and parallel ports are not supported, you can output the printer commands to a file and send it in raw mode to the printer using lpr.
Usage
TBD
See demo
Credits
Inspired from python-escpos.
License
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